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Saturday, October 22

Interpretive park ranger Caitlin Kostic speaks to Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump as she gives him a tour at
Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pa., Oct. 22, 2016.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump offered new immigration reform proposals Saturday and said he would cut taxes for middle-class Americans by 35 percent during his first 100 days in office if he won next month's election.

Trump said he would stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. by imposing a mandatory minimum prison sentence of two years for anyone who entered the country illegally. He would also require five-year minimum sentences for those with prior felony convictions, numerous misdemeanors, or two or more prior deportations."On November 8, Americans will be voting on this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our country, secure our communities and [restore] honesty to our government," Trump said in a speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - a dateline of historical significance, since that was where President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of his most important addresses 153 years ago, setting out a new course for the United States after years of civil war that severely divided the nation.

Trump also promised to impose term limits on members of Congress, enact a freeze on federal hiring, reduce federal regulations, and ban White House and congressional officials from becoming lobbyists after leaving office.

"We will drain the swamp in Washington, D.C., and replace it with a new government by and of the people," Trump declared.

His Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was making two campaign appearances elsewhere in Pennsylvania later Saturday — in Pittsburgh and suburban Philadelphia.

In his Gettysburg remarks, Trump also vowed to cancel U.S. payments to U.N. climate change programs and invested such funds instead in the nation's water and environmental infrastructure.

Campaign aides said the speech summed up his "closing arguments" to voters, 17 days before the vote. Some analysts saw this as an attempt to shift attention back to his priority issues and away from the controversies that have dogged him in recent weeks, but he nevertheless spoke out again to denounce criticism of his personal conduct and his treatment of women.

The real estate mogul-turned-politician created an uproar when he refused to say at Wednesday's final presidential debate whether he would accept the results of the election. He later revised his position somewhat, saying he would accept the results but reserved the right to mount a legal challenge if he felt results showing he lost the vote were "questionable."

'Every woman lied'

Trump drew the ire of many voters and Republican and Democratic politicians alike this month in a continuing uproar over lewd comments he made about women, and subsequent allegations by more than a dozen women that they were victims of his sexual advances.

He brought up the misconduct allegations again in the course of explaining how he would begin running the country if he won the election, telling his audience Saturday: "Every woman lied, the events never happened and all of these liars will be sued after the election."

Gettysburg, where Trump was speaking, was the site of the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, won by the Union Army. The Confederacy of Southern states fighting to break away from Washington's rule and the Union forces together lost 50,000 or more soldiers during three days of fighting.

Political surverys and public opinion polls continued to show Trump trailing Clinton, both nationwide and in almost all battleground states. The website RealClearPolitics, which aggregates multiple surveys, estimated that Clinton was ahead of Trump by 6 or more percentage points among likely voters nationwide.

Beyond nationwide vote totals, the most important indicator of the presidential election's outcome is a state-by-state comparison, since those separate races will choose delegates to the Electoral College, which actually elects the president in a session several weeks after the popular vote on November 8.

The RealClearPolitics electoral map showed Clinton was expected to win 262 votes in the Electoral College compared with 164 for Trump, with no predictions yet for several states that could affect the outcome. Since the Electoral College is made up of 538 delegates, a successful presidential candidate must gain the support of at least 270 of them.

The States of the Nation project said Saturday that Clinton appeared to have a commanding lead in the Electoral College, or a 95 percent overall chance of winning. The group forecast an Electoral College vote of 326 to 212; another widely read politics website, FiveThirtyEight.com, predicted a final vote of 341 electoral votes for Clinton and 196 for Trump.